More than 250 people participated in the consortium鈥檚 study, which tested three predictions.
By Bennett Campbell Ferguson
May 27, 2025
What is the neural basis of consciousness? Prof. Michael Pitts [psychology] is helping to answer that question.
Working with the research group Cogitate Consortium, Pitts brought together proponents of two theories of consciousness (Global Neuronal Workspace Theory (GNWT) and Integrated Information Theory (IIT) for an empirical test that challenged the validity of both theories.
More than 250 people participated in the consortium’s study, which tested three predictions from GNWT and IIT: where in the brain content of conscious experiences is represented, how conscious experience is maintained over time, and how different regions communicate to generate conscious experience.
“This is just the beginning,” says Pitts, a co-senior author of the study. “We’re not just publishing results—we’re sharing everything: the full dataset and analysis pipelines. We want the community to build on our work and take it further.”
While one of IIT’s key predictions failed and GNWT was challenged, corresponding author Lucia Melloni sees the questions the study raised as opportunities for future inquiry.
“True progress comes from making theories vulnerable to falsification, not protecting them,” Melloni says. “This wasn’t about picking a winner; it was about raising the bar for how we test ideas.” For Pitts and the consortium, the results are just the beginning; they are now analyzing the results of another experiment to test GNWT and IIT.
You can read more about the consortium’s research in